Densho Digital Archive - Aya Fujii - Taka Mizote Interview (denshovh-faya

<Begin Segment 22>

RP: And then just give us maybe a brief sketch of what you did with the rest of your life, Taka.

TM: Well, I finished college and then I went to work for the YWCA for a short while then I worked for the Japanese American Citizens Leagues office in Portland. And then I got married. My husband owned a small grocery store with his dad. I helped him for about five years when he had to have major stomach surgery and he had to quit. I had one daughter shortly after we got married and then I went to work for... when my husband had to have his stomach surgery and then we had to sell the store, I worked for the Portland Public Schools. And then after working the school district, that was from '55 to '65, about ten years. (In 1954) I had another daughter who (died of) bone cancer (at age ten). I went back to school and got (my) teaching credentials and I went on to teaching for fifteen years. And then my husband passed away (in 1976) while I was teaching. He died at fifty-seven.

RP: Aya, how about you?

AF: Let's see, after we got... see, I got married in 1950 and my husband, he was one of six boys in his family and they were all into farming and so right after we got married in the fall I started to work at a hospital. I helped at the farm a little bit but I thought to myself, gosh, I went to school for four years and I didn't want to go back to farming, so I applied at the Portland hospital and I worked there for a couple of years after my son was born. And then after my daughter was born, I worked for a little bit longer and then I stayed home to take care of the kids but in the meantime I had to work on the farm too. And then later on about ten years later after that, our last daughter was born and I thought, I mean, I needed something to do after she went to school so I started to work at another hospital and I worked there until I retired.

TM: She was a dietitian.

AF: And then I retired in '92 and then just went into all the senior activities.

RP: Were you active in the Japanese American community in Portland?

AF: Yes.

TM: Oh, we're more active in our church.

RP: Is that the Methodist?

TM: Yes.

RP: Aren't you celebrating your 100th anniversary or something like that?

TM: What?

RP: The 100th anniversary of the Methodist church?

TM: Yes, it's over a hundred.

AF: Was it more than a hundred, I don't know,

TM: Yes, it's about a 110 now. Yes, it's one of the oldest.

RP: So how did both of you feel about the efforts that created the redress and reparation?

TM: Well, that was certainly, well, we certainly thanked the people that worked on it, you know. It was a long overdue and it wasn't half as much as what we actually did... very appreciative of it.

AF: It was the parents that should have gotten it but they were gone by then.

TM: That's right. It was the parents that should have gotten it.